Project Online Service Description

Office 365

Applies to: Office 365, Project Online

Topic Last Modified: 2015-05-20

Project Online is a flexible online solution for project portfolio management (PPM) and everyday work. Delivered through Office 365, Project Online enables organizations to get started quickly with powerful project management capabilities to plan, prioritize, and manage projects and project portfolio investments—from almost anywhere on almost any device. Project Online can be used by administrators, portfolio managers, portfolio viewers, project managers, resource managers, team leads, and team members.

Read this article for an overview of the PPM options and features that are available.

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Note:

Project Online and Project Lite are both PPM solutions. Project Online is not a web-based version of Project Professional 2013, a project management solution. Project Online is a completely separate service that offers full portfolio and project management capabilities on the web.

A monthly subscription service that is offered as an add-on for customers who have Project Online.

Organizations must have Project Online in order to use Project Lite. Project Lite is suitable for project team members to manage their tasks and timesheets, and collaborate on projects. Depending on their role, users are assigned either the Project Online license or the Project Lite license (but not both).

Team collaboration supports and drives overall project success and effectiveness. To see how Project Server 2013 enables organizations to collaborate on projects, see Video: Collaborate with your team.

Adopt financial management processes to improve estimates of costs and benefits. Effectively track cost performance to make sure that each project is delivered within budget and that the portfolio achieves the expected results. To learn more, see Project Portfolio Management Solutions Guide (white paper).

Microsoft PPM solutions are backed by hundreds of Microsoft partners who have earned their PPM competency, and undergone relevant exams and numerous deployments in over 80 countries and regions worldwide. When you want help with assessment, envisioning, deployment, or training, and you’re ready to engage with professional services organizations, contact a PPM partner in your region.

Resources are the people, materials, or costs that are required to get your project done. Microsoft PPM solutions enable you to manage your resources correctly to follow through on your business strategy. To learn more, see Add a resource to Project Web App.

With Microsoft PPM solutions, you have several options for viewing and creating reports and working with Project Server 2013 data. Some reports are available automatically, and you can easily create your own reports using lots of reporting tools. To learn more, see What reporting tools can I use with project data?.

The schedule represents the tasks and deliverables that must be completed to deliver the project on time. You can create a timeline for your projects to track progress and manage change. To learn more, see Add tasks and projects to the timeline.

Use a centralized and common approach to time reporting and task management. Capture work and nonworking time for payroll, invoicing, and other business purposes. Efficiently communicate status on projects, everyday work, and ad-hoc requests to gauge usage peaks and valleys or progress on tasks. This helps you anticipate the effect on planned effort, cost, and timeframe. To learn more, see Tracking time and task progress.

1 Active Directory integration includes Project Lite users. However, a Project Online subscription is required to manage Active Directory integration.2 Users who have a Project Lite subscription do not have administrator permissions. See What can team members do in Project Online?.

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